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Introduction
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<H1 CLASS="chapter"><A NAME="htoc1">Chapter&nbsp;1</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;Introduction</H1>
<BR>
<BR>
This tutorial provides an introduction to programming in ECLiPSe.
It assumes a broad understanding of constrained optimisation
problems, some background in mathematical logic and in
programming languages.
The tutorial tries to cover most of the basic aspects of using ECL<SUP><I>i</I></SUP>PS<SUP><I>e</I></SUP>:
underlying concepts, the programming language, library functionality
and interaction with the system.<BR>
<BR>
A few topics have been left out of this tutorial and are covered
elsewhere: The <EM>Embedding Manual</EM> explains how to embed
ECL<SUP><I>i</I></SUP>PS<SUP><I>e</I></SUP> applications into other software environments, and the
<EM>Visualisation Manual</EM> describes the use of the constraint
visualisation facilities.
All the features described in this tutorial are documented in more
detail in the ECL<SUP><I>i</I></SUP>PS<SUP><I>e</I></SUP> <EM>User Manual</EM>, <EM>Constraint Library
Manual</EM> and in particular the <EM>Reference Manual</EM>.
A methodology for developing large scale applications with ECL<SUP><I>i</I></SUP>PS<SUP><I>e</I></SUP>
is presented in the document
<EM>Developing Applications with ECL</EM><SUP><EM><I>i</I></EM></SUP><EM>PS</EM><SUP><EM><I>e</I></EM></SUP> by Simonis.<BR>
<BR>
For an informal introduction to combinatorial optimisation
and constraint programming see the article
<A HREF="http://eclipse-clp.org/reports/handbook/handbook.html"><EM>Constraint Programming</EM></A> by Wallace.
The most closely related books on the subject are the
textbook <EM>Programming with Constraints</EM> by
Marriott and Stuckey [<A HREF="tutorial133.html#MarriottStuckey"><CITE>17</CITE></A>]
(which contains ECL<SUP><I>i</I></SUP>PS<SUP><I>e</I></SUP> examples),
and the seminal book
<EM>Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming</EM> [<A HREF="tutorial133.html#VanHentenryck"><CITE>27</CITE></A>]
by Van Hentenryck.<BR>
<BR>
A small selection of textbooks on related subjects includes:
<EM>Foundations of Constraint Satisfaction</EM> by Tsang [<A HREF="tutorial133.html#Tsang93"><CITE>25</CITE></A>],
<EM>Model Building in Mathematical Programming</EM> by Williams [<A HREF="tutorial133.html#Williams99"><CITE>30</CITE></A>]
and
<EM>Prolog Programming for Artificial Intelligence</EM> by Bratko [<A HREF="tutorial133.html#Bratko86"><CITE>6</CITE></A>].
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